Joel M Bradshaw

1In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. 2And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servants the prophets. 3Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 4and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon.–2 Kings 24

 And he [Manasseh] burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger (2 Kings 21:6).

And he [Josiah] defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech (2 Kings 23:10).

1. God sent armies to destroy Judah.
2. God didn’t simply allow the enemies to win.
3. God purposely sent those armies.
4. We are told He did so in response to the sins of Manasseh.
5. God punished Manasseh in response to the innocent blood he shed.
6. One of the reforms Josiah made was to tear down Manasseh’s child-sacrificing altars to Molech.
7. God today would condemn the innocent blood shed by elective abortion. The killing of pre-born babies for comfort or convenience. This is no different than the ancient Judahite sacrificing their children as religious worship to a pagan god.–JMB